Capturing and managing knowledge from social networking interactions

ABSTRACT

Presenting a marking element in a social networking interaction where the marking element includes a question specifier and an answer specifier, creating a knowledge element in response to a user activating the marking element on the social networking interaction or a portion thereof, and presenting a knowledge element indicator in the social networking interaction.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to capturing and managing knowledge, andmore specifically to capturing and managing knowledge from socialnetworking interactions.

In social networking interactions people can exchange information witheach other using computers, mobile phones, and other electroniccommunication devices. Generally, a social networking user has a groupof people with which they share information. For example, a socialnetworking user may have a work group with which they exchangeinformation. The information a user shares with the group may beaggregated in a feed for the group to see. Members of the group maycomment on information other users share.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A method for capturing and managing knowledge from social networkinginteractions includes presenting a marking element in a socialnetworking interaction where the marking element includes a questionspecifier and an answer specifier, creating a knowledge element inresponse to a user activating the marking element on the socialnetworking interaction or a portion thereof, and presenting a knowledgeelement indicator in the social networking interaction.

A system for capturing and managing knowledge from social networkinginteractions includes a presenting engine to present a marking elementin a social networking interaction where the marking element includes aquestion specifier and an answer specifier, a creating engine to createa knowledge element in response to a user activating the marking elementon the social networking interaction or portion thereof, and a storingengine to store the knowledge element in a catalog of knowledgeelements.

A computer program product for presenting a link label for multiplehyperlinks includes a tangible computer readable storage medium wherethe tangible computer readable storage medium has computer readableprogram code embodied therewith. The computer readable program code hasprogram instructions that, when executed, causes a processor to presenta marking element in a social networking interaction where the markingelement includes a question specifier and an answer specifier, create aknowledge element in response to a user activating the marking elementon the social networking interaction or portion thereof, store theknowledge element in a catalog of knowledge elements, present anevaluation element for evaluating the knowledge element in the socialnetworking interaction, present an editing element for editing theknowledge element, alter the knowledge element in response to a userevaluating or editing the knowledge element, and recommend the knowledgeelement for use in response to a user composing a message relevant tothe knowledge element in the social networking interaction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments of theprinciples described herein and are a part of the specification. Theillustrated embodiments are merely examples and do not limit the scopeof the claims.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example of a knowledge capturing andmanagement system according to the principles described herein.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example of a marking element with question andanswer specifiers and a knowledge element indicator element according tothe principles described herein.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example of a knowledge element according tothe principles described herein.

FIG. 4 is an example of an editing element according to the principlesdescribed herein.

FIG. 5 is an example of an evaluating element according to theprinciples described herein.

FIG. 6 shows an example of recommending a knowledge element according tothe principles described herein.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example of a method for capturing and managingknowledge from social networking interactions according to theprinciples described herein.

FIG. 8 is a diagram of an example of a method for capturing and managingknowledge from social networking interactions according to theprinciples described herein.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of an example of a knowledge capturing and managingsystem according to the principles described herein.

FIG. 10 is a diagram of an example of a knowledge capturing and managingsystem according to the principles described herein.

Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar,but not necessarily identical, elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present specification describes a method and system for presenting amarking element which includes question and answer specifiers in asocial networking interaction, creating a knowledge element in responseto a user activating the marking element, and presenting a knowledgeelement indicator in the social networking interaction such thatknowledge from social networking interactions may be captured andmanaged.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readablestorage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example,but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitablecombination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustivelist) of the computer readable storage medium would include thefollowing: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random accessmemory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a portable compact discread-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storagedevice, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context ofthis document, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangiblemedium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connectionwith an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations of the presentinvention may be written in an object oriented programming language suchas Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like. However, the computer program codefor carrying out operations of the present invention may also be writtenin conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The program codemay execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user'scomputer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user'scomputer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remotecomputer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may beconnected to the user's computer through a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

The present invention is described below with reference to flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products according to embodiments of the invention. Itwill be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/orblock diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computerprogram instructions. These computer program instructions may beprovided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purposecomputer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce amachine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor ofthe computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, createmeans for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchartand/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

As mentioned above, social networking users share information throughsocial networking interactions. In the course of social networkinginteractions, particularly useful information may be exchanged. However,social networking interactions are not set up to capture and manageknowledge when shared in a social networking interaction. If knowledgefrom a social networking interaction is not captured and managed,information that may have been useful to users may be lost in the streamof information exchanged. Users who are not engaged in the interactionor do not happen to view the interaction at the time their issue isbeing discussed may miss this information as well. For example, amanager, in an exchange with his team using a microblog may discoverthat some members of the team have a common problem with the softwarethey use. It may also be discovered in the course exchanging informationthat other members of the team have suggestions for solving the problem.The manager may want to have this information captured and managed forlater use or else the useful information may be lost.

In some cases, computing systems may be used to attempt to automaticallyidentify information, including question and answers, in a socialnetworking interaction. However, these systems may not prove to be aseffective as social networking users themselves at identifying whichinformation is helpful enough to a user to be captured and managed andwhich information is not. Further, if the computing system looks forquestions, helpful information may be lost when a question is inferredbut not explicitly stated. In addition, these systems may be prone tomaking errors in interpreting human language.

The principles described herein include a method for capturing andmanaging knowledge from social networking interactions. Such a methodincludes presenting a marking element which includes a questionspecifier and an answer specifier in a social networking interaction,creating a knowledge element in response to a user activating themarking element on the social networking interaction or a portionthereof and presenting a knowledge element indicator in the socialnetworking interaction.

Thus, the manager may select the information they want captured andmanage that information by using the marking element to select thatinformation and specify a part to be a question and a part to be ananswer. In response to this information being selected in with themarking element, a knowledge element is produced which may be stored andmanaged such that the information is made available for future use.

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present systems and methods. It will be apparent,however, to one skilled in the art that the present apparatus, systems,and methods may be practiced without these specific details. Referencein the specification to “an example” or similar language means that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith that example is included as described, but may not be included inother examples.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularexamples, and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, thesingular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include the pluralforms as well, unless the context clearly indicated otherwise. It willbe further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising”when used in the specification, specify the presence of stated features,integers, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not precludethe presence or addition of a number of other features, integers,operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Referring now to the figures, FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example of aknowledge capturing and management system (100) according to theprinciples described herein. In this example, the knowledge capturingand management system (100) communicates through a network (102) withvarious devices (104-1, 104-2, 104-3, and 104-4). A social networkinguser may compose and post an electronic message in a social networkinginteraction with a device (104-1, 104-2, 104-3, and 104-4). Other socialnetworking users may receive and comment on the message in the socialnetworking interaction with their devices (104-2, 104-3, and 104-4). Ifdesired, users participating in the social networking interaction mayactivate a marking element with question and answer specifiers onmessages in the social networking interaction with their devices (104-1,104-2, 104-3, and 104-4) such that knowledge may be captured andmanaged.

The devices (104-1, 104-2, 104-3, and 104-4) may be any appropriatedevices that can send and/or receive electronic messages. For example, anon-exhaustive list of devices that may be suitable includes laptops,desktops, personal computers, phones, electronic tablets, watches,wearable computing devices, personal digital assistants, otherelectronic devices, and combinations thereof. The electronic message maybe a social networking post or comment, a social networking message, amicroblog post or comment, another type of message, or combinationsthereof. The system used to send the electronic message may becontrolled by a network component, such as a server or another networkcomponent. In other examples, the electronic message may be controlledlocally on the user devices (104-1, 104-2, 104-3, and 104-4).

The knowledge capturing and managing system (100) may provide usersparticipating in the social networking interaction with the capabilityto activate a marking element, which includes question and answerspecifiers, on messages in the social networking interaction. Themarking element allows the users to specify which messages in a socialnetworking interaction they want saved for future use. The question andanswer specifiers allow the user to specify which message contains aquestion and pair that question to an answer by specifying a messagethat contains the answer. Further, multiple messages may be selected asthe question and multiple messages may selected as the answer.

In response to the marking element being activated, the capturing andmanaging system (100) may create a knowledge element. A knowledgeelement may include information about the portions of the socialnetworking interaction on which the marking element was activatedincluding the question and answer pair. A knowledge element may alsoinclude information about the social networking users participating inthe social networking interaction. Information included in a knowledgeelement may further include, but is not limited to, message text,comment text, a number of submitter names, a submission date, a numberof categories, a rating, notes, an updated date, other metadata, or acombination thereof. Further, the knowledge element may be stored in acatalog of knowledge elements for later use.

The knowledge capturing and managing system (100) may also present aknowledge element indicator in a social networking interaction. Forexample, a pair of messages in a social networking interaction has beenmarked by a social networking user as a question and an answer. Theknowledge element indicator indicates which messages were marked so thatthe participants in the social networking interaction may see thatsomeone found the pair useful. The knowledge element indicator mayfurther provide social networking users with the capability of accessingsome or all of the information stored by the knowledge element.Accessing the knowledge element may provide users participating in thesocial networking interaction with the capability to edit or evaluate aknowledge element. In response to users' actions, the capturing andmanaging system (100) may alter the knowledge element includingcategorizing, clarifying, formatting, editing, or rating the knowledgeelement.

Further, the capturing and managing system (100) may present recommendedcompletions in response to users composing a message relevant to theknowledge element in the social networking interaction. As the usertypes a question or answer, a number of relevant knowledge elements maybe made available from which the user to may choose. In addition, theuser may give feedback about or directly the recommendations so thatthey may be improved.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example of a marking element (203-1, 203-2,and 203-3) with question and answer specifiers (204-1 and 204-2) and aknowledge element indicator (205-1, 205-2, and 205-3). In this example,a social networking user, David B. has posted a message (202-1) to asocial networking interaction (200). David B.'s message has receivedreply messages or comments from Bruce B. (201-2) and Jamie Y. (202-3).David B. shares something he learned about a file viewer and expresses adesire for further functionality for the file viewer (202-1). Bruce B.agrees with the David B's desire for further functionality (202-2).Jamie Y. answers David B's implicit question by telling him how to usethe file viewer to achieve his desired result (202-3).

Each message (202-1, 202-2, and 202-3) is presented with a markingelement (203-1, 203-2, and 203-3). In this example, the marking elementis a visual user interface element that allows a user to mark theelement with a question or answer specifier. In other examples, themarking element may include but is not limited to user interfacecontrols, buttons, fields, voice-activated elements, audio elements, ora combination thereof.

Two of the marking elements (203-1 and 203-3) are marked withspecifiers. The marking element (203-1) for David B's message (202-1) ismarked with a question specifier (204-1) “Q.” The marking element(203-3) for Jamie Y's message (202-3) is marked with an answer specifier(204-2) “A.” These specifier marks indicate that a user found David B'smessage (202-1) to include a question and Jamie Y's message (202-3) toinclude a suitable answer to David B's question.

Upon activating the marking element, a knowledge element is created. Inthis example, the knowledge element created includes the name of theperson who marked the question and answer pair as well as the questionand answer pair themselves. To indicate that a knowledge element existsfor this social networking interaction (200), a knowledge elementindicator (205-1, 205-2, and 205-3) is presented in the socialnetworking interaction. In this example, the knowledge element indicatorhas three parts: A submitter indicator (205-1), a question indicator(205-2), and an answer indicator (205-3). The submitter indicatorpresents the name of the user who marked the messages as a question andanswer pair. In this example, Bruce B. is shown as being the submitter.Bruce B. participated in the social networking interaction as thesubmitter; however, the submitter may be any user that is able to viewthe social networking interaction. A user is not required to participatein the interaction in order to mark it. Further, in this example, thesubmitter indicator shows the name of one person. However, multipleusers may mark the same messages. The question indicator (205-2)indicates which message includes a question. The answer indicator(205-3) indicates which message includes an answer. In general, aknowledge element indicator may represent any of the data included inthe knowledge element.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example of a knowledge element (300). Theknowledge element may be used to manage knowledge marked by users ofsocial networking interactions. In this example, the knowledge element(300) includes a question (301), an answer (302), a submitter (303), adate submitted (304), categories (305), and a rating (306).

The question (301) and answer (302) are messages marked by a submitter.In this example, the messages are unedited copies of messages from asocial networking interaction. In other examples, the messages may havebeen edited by the submitter or other users of a capturing and managingsystem. In this example, the message text itself is stored in theknowledge element. In other examples, however, a pointer or reference tothe messages may be used.

The submitter (303) includes the user who marked the knowledge element.In this example, there is one submitter, but in other implementations,many users may be listed as submitters. The date submitted (304) is alsoincluded. The date submitted indicates the date on which the submittermarked the messages.

Categories (305) may also be included in the knowledge element to helpusers to better navigate and classify knowledge elements. For example,in some implementations a knowledge element may be put into a catalog ofknowledge elements. When knowledge elements are cataloged, categoriesmay be useful for organizing knowledge elements. Knowledge elements maybe given a category chosen by users or by inferring the category throughan analysis or other methods of determining a category. Further,knowledge elements may be recommended to users based on a knowledgeelement's category.

The rating (306) may be managed by a knowledge element as well. Aknowledge element's rating may be used to help gauge how useful oreffective a knowledge element is. The rating may be affected by usersvoting on the knowledge element, or by the number of times the knowledgeelement has been referenced, etc.

FIG. 4 is an example of an editing element (400). The editing element(400) may provide users with the capability of editing a knowledgeelement. In this example, the editing element includes fields that maybe edited which include a question (401) and an answer (403); theediting also includes edit buttons (402 and 404), and an editing field(405).

In this example, the question (401) is inferred rather than explicit. Auser may desire to clarify the question by editing it to retain theoriginal question but put make it more understandable. The useractivates the edit button for the question field (402) and an editingfield is presented (405). In the editing field (405) the user enters aclarifying edit of the question and saves it. The knowledge element isupdated with the new text. In this example, a visual interface is used,but in general many types of interface could be used, for example, anaudio interface, a mobile phone touch interface, a keyboard interface, amouse interface, a mind-computer interface, or a combination thereof.Although the question field is edited in this example, any data of theknowledge element may be edited if desired.

FIG. 5 is an example of an evaluating element (500). The evaluatingelement (500) may be presented to a user when they view a knowledgeelement. The evaluating element (500) may also be presented when aknowledge element is recommended to a user. In this example, theevaluating element (500) includes a rating (501), and vote up button(502) and vote down button (503). If a user finds a certain knowledgeelement useful, the user may increase the rating (501) by using the voteup button (502). If the user does not find the knowledge element useful,they may use the decrease button (501) to decrease the rating.

FIG. 6 shows an example of recommending a knowledge element. In thisexample, a social networking interaction user is composing a message(600). As the message is composed, the social networking interactionuser is given a recommendation (601) based on the text the user haspreviously entered into the message field. The recommendation may helpthe user to resolve their question before they share it with theirsocial network. In other implementations, a user may be composing theanswer to another user's question and may be recommended a knowledgeelement to use for the answer.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example of a method (700) for capturing andmanaging knowledge from social networking interactions. In this example,the method (700) includes presenting a marking element in a socialnetworking interaction where the marking element includes a questionspecifier and an answer specifier (701), creating a knowledge element inresponse to a user activating the marking element on the socialnetworking interaction or a portion thereof (702), and presenting aknowledge element indicator in the social networking interaction (703).

The marking element may include user interface elements, icons, buttons,images, check boxes, text fields, voice-activated fields, gesturesrecognizers, or a combination thereof. Some example of a user activatingthe marking element may include: clicking, typing, selecting, tapping,gesturing, speaking, or a combination thereof. The marking elementincludes question and answer specifiers so that a user may mark a socialnetworking interaction or portion thereof as the question and a socialnetworking interaction or portion thereof as the answer. Specifiers mayinclude icons, marks in check boxes, entries in text fields, buttons, ora combination thereof. Social networking interactions may includemicroblogs, message streams, chat rooms, blog posts, forum posts, socialnetwork status, comments, other interactions, or a combination thereof.

A knowledge element may include a database table, database fields, andother data structures or a combination thereof. A knowledge element maystore, a question and answer pair, date create, submitter, categories,ratings, other metadata or a combination thereof. Creating a knowledgeelement may include creating a database table or entry, storing data,referencing data, creating other data structures or other methods ofpersisting data, or a combination thereof.

A knowledge element indicator may include interface elements, images,text, icons, buttons, other interface elements, or a combinationthereof. The knowledge element indicator may accompany the relevantmessages in a social networking interaction or may be presented in alist as a part of the interaction, other methods of presentation, or acombination thereof.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operations of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products. In this regard, eachblock in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module,segment, or portion of code, which has a number of executableinstructions for implementing the specific logical function(s). Itshould also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, thefunctions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in thefigures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, beexecuted substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes beexecuted in the reverse order, depending upon the functionalityinvolved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagramsand/or flowchart illustration and combination of blocks in the blockdiagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by specialpurpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions oracts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computerinstructions.

FIG. 8 is a diagram of an example of a method (800) for capturing andmanaging knowledge from social networking interactions. In this example,the method (800) includes presenting a marking element in a socialnetworking interaction where the marking element includes a questionspecifier and an answer specifier (801), creating a knowledge element inresponse to a user activating the marking element on the socialnetworking interaction or a portion thereof (802), storing the knowledgeelement in a catalog of knowledge elements (803), presenting a knowledgeelement indicator in the social networking interaction (804), presentingan evaluation element for evaluating the knowledge element in the socialnetworking interaction (805), presenting an editing element for editingthe knowledge element (806), altering the knowledge element in responseto a user evaluating or editing the knowledge element (807), andrecommending the knowledge element for use in response to a usercomposing a message relevant to the knowledge element in the socialnetworking interaction (808).

Storing the knowledge element in a catalog of knowledge elements (803)may include categorizing the knowledge element, writing the knowledgeelement to a persistent memory location, storing the knowledge elementon a server, tracking the knowledge element in a relational database orother databases, other storing methods, or a combination thereof. Acatalog of knowledge elements may include other knowledge elements thathave been created in response to a user activating a marking element onsocial networking interactions or a portion thereof.

An evaluation element may include user interface elements, buttons,images, icons, text fields, voice-activated fields, other interfaceelements, or a combination thereof. Evaluating a knowledge element mayinclude rating a knowledge element based on a variety of factors.

Altering the knowledge element in response to a user evaluating orediting the knowledge element (807) may include altering the knowledgeelement based a user's input into the evaluating and editing elements.For example, if a user desires to increase the rating a of a knowledgeelement they may use the evaluating element to indicate their desire.The capturing and managing system, in response, alters the knowledgeelement. Further, the knowledge element may be altered by categorizing,clarifying, formatting, editing, rating or combinations thereof. Thesealterations may be made by users, administrators, performedprogrammatically, or a combination thereof.

Recommending the knowledge element for use in response to a usercomposing a message relevant to the knowledge element in the socialnetworking interaction (808) may include detecting that a user iscomposing a question and recommending a knowledge element which mayinclude an answer, detecting that a user is entering an answer to aquestion and recommending an answer based on knowledge elements thathave similar questions, etc. Recommending may include presenting aknowledge element indicator to the social networking interaction user,alerting the user, displaying user interface elements to the userincluding and images, other ways of recommending, or combinationsthereof.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of an example of a knowledge capturing and managingsystem (900). The knowledge capturing and managing system (900) includesa presenting engine (902) and a creating engine (904). In this example,the knowledge capturing and managing system also includes a storingengine (906), a recommending engine (908), and an altering engine (910).The altering engine (910) further includes a categorizing engine (912),a clarifying engine (914), a formatting engine (916), an editing engine(918), and a rating engine (920). The engines (902, 904, 906, 908, 910,912, 914, 916, 918, 920) refer to a combination of hardware and programinstructions to perform a designated function. Each of the engines (902,904, 906, 908, 910, 912, 914, 916, 918, 920) may include a processor andmemory. The program instructions are stored in the memory and cause theprocessor to execute the designated function of the engine.

The presenting engine (902) presents marking elements with question andanswer specifiers in a social networking interaction. In this example,the presenting engine may include several presenting engines or may beone presenting engine which may further present a knowledge elementindicator, an evaluation element, and an editing element.

The creating engine (904) creates a knowledge element in response to auser activating the marking element. The creating engine may include inthe knowledge element the question and answer marked or a referencethereto and other metadata about the knowledge element.

The storing engine (906) stores the knowledge element in a catalog. Oncestored in a catalog the recommending engine (908) may use the catalogedknowledge elements to recommend answers to questions composed by socialnetworking interaction users. In addition, the altering engine (910)may, through user input or programmatically, alter the knowledgeelement. The altering engine includes a categorizing engine (912), aclarifying engine (914), a formatting engine (916), an editing engine(918), and a rating engine (920) for this purpose. Knowledge elementsmay be categorized, clarified, formatted, edited, or rated with theseengines.

FIG. 10 is a diagram of an example of a knowledge capturing and managingsystem. In this example, the knowledge capturing and managing system(1000) includes processing resources (1002) that are in communicationwith memory resources (1004). Processing resources (1002) include atleast one processor and other resources used to process programmedinstructions. The memory resources (1004) represent generally any memorycapable of storing data such as programmed instructions or datastructures used by the knowledge capturing and managing system (1000).The programmed instructions shown stored in the memory resources (1004)include an element presenter (1006), a knowledge element creator (1008),a knowledge element storer (1010), a knowledge element recommender(1012), a knowledge element alterer (1013), which knowledge elementalterer (1013) further includes a knowledge element categorizer (1014),a knowledge element clarifier (1016), a knowledge element formatter(1018), a knowledge element editor (1020), and a knowledge element rater(1022).

The memory resources (1004) include a computer readable storage mediumthat contains computer readable program code to cause tasks to beexecuted by the processing resources (1002). The computer readablestorage medium may be tangible storage medium. The computer readablestorage medium may be any appropriate storage medium that is not atransmission storage medium. A non-exhaustive list of computer readablestorage medium types includes non-volatile memory, volatile memory,random access memory, write only memory, flash memory, electricallyerasable program read only memory, magnetic storage media, other typesof memory, or combinations thereof.

The element presenter (1006) may be one presenter or multiple presenterswhich represent programmed instructions that, when executed, cause theprocessing resources (1002) to present a marking element with questionand answer specifiers, to present an evaluation element for evaluatingknowledge elements, to present an editing element for evaluatingknowledge elements, and to present a knowledge element indicator.

The knowledge element creator (1008) represents programmed instructionsthat, when executed, cause the processing resources (1002) to create aknowledge element which may be stored in a catalog by the knowledgeelement storer (1010). The knowledge element storer (1010) representsprogrammed instructions that, when executed, cause the processingresources (1002) to store a knowledge element in a catalog. Theknowledge element recommender (1012) represents programmed instructionsthat, when executed, cause the processing resources (1002) to recommendthe knowledge element for use in response to a user composing a messagerelevant to the knowledge element in the social networking interaction.

The knowledge element alterer (1013) represents programmed instructionsthat, when executed, cause the processing resources (1002) to alter theknowledge element in a variety of ways in response to a user evaluatingor editing the knowledge element. The knowledge element alterer (1013)includes: a knowledge element categorizer (1014) which representsprogrammed instructions that, when executed, cause the processingresources (1002) to categorize the knowledge element; a knowledgeelement clarifier (1016) which represents programmed instructions that,when executed, cause the processing resources (1002) to clarify theknowledge element; a knowledge element formatter (1018) which representsprogrammed instructions that, when executed, cause the processingresources (1002) to format a knowledge element; a knowledge elementeditor (1020) which represents programmed instructions that, whenexecuted, cause the processing resources (1002) to edit a knowledgeelement; and a knowledge element rater (1022) which representsprogrammed instructions that, when executed, cause the processingresources (1002) to rate a knowledge element.

Further, the memory resources (1004) may be part of an installationpackage. In response to installing the installation package, theprogrammed instructions of the memory resources (1004) may be downloadedfrom the installation package's source, such as a portable medium, aserver, a remote network location, another location, or combinationsthereof. Portable memory media that are compatible with the principlesdescribed herein include DVDs, CDs, flash memory, portable disks,magnetic disks, optical disks, other forms of portable memory, orcombinations thereof. In other examples, the program instructions arealready installed. Here, the memory resources can include integratedmemory such as a hard drive, a solid state hard drive, or the like.

In some examples, the processing resources (1002) and the memoryresources (1004) are located within the same physical component, such asa server, or a network component. The memory resources (1004) may bepart of the physical component's main memory, caches, registers,non-volatile memory, or elsewhere in the physical component's memoryhierarchy. Alternatively, the memory resources (1004) may be incommunication with the processing resources (1002) over a network.Further, the data structures, such as the libraries and may be accessedfrom a remote location over a network connection while the programmedinstructions are located locally. Thus, the knowledge capturing andmanaging system (1000) may be implemented on a user device, on a server,on a collection of servers, or combinations thereof.

The knowledge capturing and managing system (1000) of FIG. 10 may bepart of a general purpose computer. In alternative examples, theknowledge capturing and managing system (1000) is part of an applicationspecific integrated circuit.

The preceding description has been presented to illustrate and describeexamples of the principles described. This description is not intendedto be exhaustive or to limit these principles to any precise formdisclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light ofthe above teaching.

1-8. (canceled)
 9. A system for capturing and managing knowledge fromsocial networking interactions comprising: a presenting engine topresent a marking element in a social networking interaction whereinsaid marking element comprises a question specifier and an answerspecifier; a creating engine to create a knowledge element in responseto a user activating said marking element presented with said socialnetworking interaction; and a storing engine to store said knowledgeelement in a catalog of knowledge elements.
 10. The system of claim 9,wherein said social networking interaction is a microblog.
 11. Thesystem of claim 9, further comprising a presenting engine to presentsaid knowledge element in said social networking interaction.
 12. Thesystem of claim 9, further comprising a presenting engine to present anevaluation element for evaluating said knowledge element in said socialnetworking interaction.
 13. The system of claim 9, further comprising apresenting engine to present an editing element for editing saidknowledge element.
 14. The system of claim 9, further comprising analtering engine to alter said knowledge element in response to a userevaluating or editing said knowledge element.
 15. The system of claim14, wherein said altering engine comprises a categorizing engine, aclarifying engine, a formatting engine, an editing engine, a ratingengine or combinations thereof.
 16. The system of claim 9, furthercomprising a recommending engine to recommend said knowledge element foruse in response to a user composing a message relevant to said knowledgeelement in said social networking interaction.
 17. A computer programproduct for capturing and managing knowledge from social networkinginteractions comprising: a computer readable storage medium, saidcomputer readable storage medium comprising computer readable programcode embodied therewith, said computer readable program code comprisingprogram instructions that, when executed, causes a processor to: presenta marking element in a social networking interaction; create a knowledgeelement in response to a user activating said marking element in saidsocial networking interaction; store said knowledge element in a catalogof knowledge elements; present an evaluation element for evaluating saidknowledge element in said social networking interaction; present anediting element for editing said knowledge element; alter said knowledgeelement in response to a user evaluating or editing said knowledgeelement; and recommend said knowledge element for use in response to auser composing a message relevant to said knowledge element in saidsocial networking interaction.
 18. The computer program product of claim17, further comprising program instructions that, when executed, causessaid processor to present said knowledge element in said socialnetworking interaction.
 19. The computer program product of claim 17,wherein said social networking interaction is a microblog.
 20. Thecomputer program product of claim 17, wherein altering further comprisesprogram instructions that, when executed, causes said processor tocategorize, clarify, format, edit, rate or combinations thereof.